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It took a little hand-wringing from city council, but West Kelowna will move ahead with Phase 2 of its wine trail–roundabouts and all.
Council voted to put a tender out for the entire second phase of the project, which would see the trail extended about 1.5 kilometres along Boucherie Road, from Stuart Road to Ogden Road.
Along with upgrades like sidewalks, light poles and bike lanes, the trail brings with it a slew of road and infrastructure upgrades, including more than a kilometre of storm sewers and water mains, new fire hydrants, and a newly paved road.
Fuelling some councillors’ opposition to the project was its price tag, which comes in at a total of $8,755,000. That’s $2,502,000 more than the project was originally estimated to cost, something city staff said is due to the addition of a second roundabout, and changing construction costs.
Money for the project will come primarily from road development cost charges (which developers pay), with a small portion taken from water reserves and cash in lieu payments, and the rest coming out of the capital budget.
‘Get ‘er done’
Coun. Rick De Jong was one of the few councillors to express opposition to the project.
He said he supports the concept of the wine trail, but that there are other projects that need to be finished around the community, with infrastructure in desperate need of upgrades.
He called for a “more measured approach” to the trail construction, so the city “doesn’t put all our dollars in the same kitty,” and only focus on one area of the community.
Staff gave council the option to either move ahead with the full project, move ahead with only half the project, or completely defer the whole thing.
Most councillors pushed for the first option.
“I’m of the ‘get ‘er done’ mentality at this point. I can’t for the life of me see how it’s going to get cheaper,” Coun. Bryden Winsby said, pointing out that there was both practical and financial reasons to do the project all at once.
“We don’t want to dig twice, and I don’t think we want to inconvenience drivers more than we have to,” he said.
A significant boost
The city finished Phase 1 of its wine trail several years ago, and since its completion several new wineries have opened. Many business owners on or near the route urged council to move ahead with Phase 2 as soon as possible
Tina Slamka, the president of the Westside Wine Trail, said Phase 1 has had a significant “positive impact.”
“Phase 1 of the Wine Route not only saw improvements and beautification to the roadway, but more importantly it began a process of developing a sense of place and identity that our community hadn’t seen before,” she wrote in a letter to council. “This created interest and investment into the area in terms of new wineries, restaurants, bed and breakfasts, service providers as well as residential development.”
Bobby Gidda, the proprietor Volcanic Hills Estate Winery, also expressed his strong support for the project’s timely completion.
He said Boucherie Road has become a “major tourism hotspot” since the wine trail was established, and that his own winery has experienced “exponential growth” in part because of it.
“We have seen tourists from around the world, and these tourists are commuting a lot more by walking and cycling from winery to winery. I have also witnessed tourists commuting from the local bed and breakfasts to wineries such as Mission Hilts Estate winery and Quail’s Gate Estate Winery,” he wrote.
Traffic troubles
Residents along the trail have expressed concerns about vehicle traffic, specifically at a few key intersections.
Phase 2 of the trail will include two roundabouts, at Hudson and Anders Roads. Residents have weighed in both for and against the roundabouts, but Mayor Doug Findlater said he thinks it’s wise to side with the accepted wisdom.
He pointed out that “technical people” say roundabouts are the best way to handle traffic issues at those intersections, and that he agrees with them.
He conceded that some people still don’t know how to properly use roundabouts, and suggested some kind of education campaign to help fix that.
Council also decided to keep the intersections at Skyline and Stevenson Roads open, based on resident feedback that was largely in favour of doing so.
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